Why do people do it?

This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public Radio.

I'm Jane Lindhall. When you're asleep, sometimes strange things happen. You fly through the air like a bird, but you don't have wings.

But then all of a sudden you do have wings and you go all the way to Antarctica and float over the ice, watching penguins

waddle over the edge and into the water and seals swim up just below. Sometimes after you've gone to sleep, you travel to a magical place.

Sometimes scary things happen.

After I speed down the hill, I went into a bears cave near the bottom of the hill and I was super scared.

I saw the bear on his hind legs and then after that I put up my covers over my head and that helped me stop making that dream.

Jameson from Walpole, Massachusetts sent us that dream that scared him, but as he points out, then you wake up and you're actually still in your bed.

Everyone dreams and dreams play an important role in the way our brains function. But we don't always remember our dreams.

Today on But Why we're going to listen back to an episode we made about dreams. Here are some of the questions you have sent us recently about how and why we dream.

Hi my name is Nikki and I'm six years old. I live in Pasadena California and my question is how do we get dreams and why?

Hello my name is Ottersh. I'm seven years old. I am from Turkey, Stumble. My question is why do we dream and have night to mayors?

My name is Wiston and I live in Harrisonburg, Virginia and I'm seven years old. Why do we dream and can you control your dreams?

My name is Ian. I'm from California and I'm seven years old. My question is why do you sometimes have weird dreams?

My name is Connor. I am a nine years old and I'm from Menlo Park, California. My question is why do sometimes have dreams that have nothing to do with your day?

My name is Ben Hesh. I'm ten years old. I live in Finksport, Maryland and my question is why when you watch bad things or scary things you get bad dreams about them?

Hello my name is Odio and I'm from Pasadena, California and I'm three years old and my question is at what age do kids start having dreams?

Hi my name is Liam. I am eight years old. I live in New Jersey and my question is how do we wake up if we have a nightmare?

Today we're going to get answers from Dr. David Khan. I'm on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry.

A psychiatrist is a doctor who studies the way our brains make us feel and think and behave and a psychiatrist helps make sure your brain is keeping your mood stable and your emotions healthy. That's often called mental health.

Dr. Khan got interested in medicine partly because like so many of you he was really interested in dreams.

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